4.
Creative Commons
Creative Commons is a nonprofit corporation dedicated to
making it easier for people to share and build upon the work
of others, consistent with the rules of copyright.
The simple cc-Attribution License allows others to copy,
distribute, display, and
perform your copyrighted
work but only if they
give credit the way you
request.
Source: CreativeCommons.org
http://creativecommons.org
Creative Commons by/3.0
Image: Joi @ flickr
Claas Hanken 08/2009 (CC by/3.0) cc Attribution 2.0 Generic

5.
German government agencies and CC
Wikimedia Germany in cooperation with German Bundesarchiv:
more than 100.000 images, mostly documenting German history .
The images are issued as Creative Commons BY-SA 3.0 Germany.
Apart from this publication under cc only in individual
cases, for instance »Die Lage der Biologischen Vielfalt«
(Creative Commons Attribution License 2.5).
German government works are published under special
copyright conditions. Even CC0 is not applicable.
Creative Commons licenses could be applied on other works
for which the Government holds copyright.
Claas Hanken 08/2009 (CC by/3.0)

7.
»Alle Rechte vorbehalten« vs. § 5 UrhG?
Standard copyright protection is not appliable on
German government works (§ 5 Abs. 1 of the german
Urheberrechtsgesetz – UrhG). In many cases
government publication could be freely distributed, if
only the source is identified in a recognizable way.
None the less most government agencies are using
»All rights reserved« (»Alle Rechte vorbehalten«) for
their Websites.
Why?
Claas Hanken 08/2009 (CC by/3.0)

9.
Proprietary Software vs. OSS
• Usually contractors don’t have to provide results
under Free and Open Source Licenses (FOSS like
GNU, EUPL, »Bremer Lizenz«).
• Due to agreements from the 70’s (»Kieler
Beschlüsse«) government agencies can adopt and
use certain applications that were developed for
other administrative bodies free of charge.
Examples: Ginfis, EPOS, Favorit OfficeFlow,
Government Site Builder
Claas Hanken 08/2009 (CC by/3.0)

10.
Excuses for restrictive licenses
»It always worked, why change it?«
»OSS is tinkered
»Anyone could mess around with by unknown
with the source code!« people and faulty.«
privacy »There could be
negative effects for
»We paid for it – some companies.«
therefore we own it.«
Uncertain fears and
doubts
Image: germanium @ flickr
cc Attribution 2.0 Generic
Claas Hanken 08/2009 (CC by/3.0)

11.
Freedom of Information (FoI)
• The german laws on FoI (by Bund and Länder)
have the purpose to ensure that the government’s
operations are apparent. They grant unconditional
access to public information for everyone – with
few exceptions (abandonment of the
Amtsgeheimnis-paradigm).
• Risks for requesters: refusal of enquiries,
high costs
Claas Hanken 08/2009 (CC by/3.0)

13.
Laws on the reuse of PSI
The german »Informationsweiterverwendungsgesetz«
is aimed to transpose directive 2003/98/EC on the
reuse of public sector information into national law.
The law deals with the sharing and reuse of public
sector information by citizens and businesses.
Government agencies can impose fees on the reuse of
information. (Do they charge the taxpayer again for
information that has been collected using tax money?)
Claas Hanken 08/2009 (CC by/3.0)